Latest / Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love / 211: Back to School, Back to Business

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211: Back to School, Back to Business · Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love

• 0:00
  Davina: If you are a solo and you are out sick for weeks, everything grinds to a halt. If you're a solo and you have some staff members and you go on vacation, you still are the main person who is the answer woman for those people. There are certain things that they will not be able to do without you. So you constantly have to be on even when you are out. That can only happen if you cultivate the right team and create a locker business that can be operated systematically without you being present.
• 0:35
  If you must be present to sign up new clients, to sign the checks, to do the legal work, to do the billing, to meet with clients, to make it rain, to deal with employee issues, and everything else that comes with running a successful business, then you will never be able to achieve the full freedom that you desire.
• 0:53
  Intro: Welcome to the Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast. What
• 0:57
  Davina: if
• 0:57
  Intro: you could hang out with successful women lawyers, ask them about growing their firms, managing resources like time, team, and systems, mastering money issues, and more? Then take an insight or two to help you build a wealth generating law firm. Each week, your host, Devina Frederick, takes an in-depth look at how to think like a CEO, attract clients who you love to serve and will pay you on time, and create a profitable, sustainable firm you love. Devina is founder and CEO of Wealthy Woman Lawyer, and her goal is to give you the information you need to scale your law firm business from 6 to 7 figures in gross annual revenue so you can fully fund and still have time to enjoy the life lifestyle of your dreams. Now here's Devina.
• 1:43
  Davina: Hi. This is Devina. And before we jump into today's show, I'd like first to introduce you to some of our sponsors. When prospective clients are looking for an attorney, they usually turn to Google first. Optimize My Firm helps law firms grow their practices and attract more right fit clients through on page and back end search engine optimization.
• 2:07
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• 2:43
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• 3:15
  Visit www.gavel.io and mention the Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast for a free fourteen day trial, or just click on the link in the show notes. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast. I'm your host, Devina Frederick. And today, we are all going to school. Not really, but since it's that time of year when kids all across The US are headed back to school and parents are saying goodbye to summer vacations and refocusing on their normal work routines.
• 3:46
  I thought it'd be a really good topic for today's episode to talk about what to do when life gets in the way of your law firm growth goals. Because let's face it, if it's not the distraction of getting your kids ready to go back to school, it's getting them ready for summer vacation or for spring break or for the holidays, which quite frankly start with Halloween on October 31 and continue all the way through New Year's Day. It is not uncommon for me to hear women law firm owners say, I would love to do X, but I cannot do it until after y. And so that is why I have created this episode for you guys. What is a future wealthy woman lawyer to do when every time she sets a goal, seasonal events take her mind and her time and her focused attention away from those goals.
• 4:35
  If that sounds all too familiar to you, then stay tuned because I have some strategies for you. First, though, I wanna be clear about the purpose of a profitable, sustainable law firm business that is to support your chosen lifestyle, and it's not the other way around. So, of course, if you have children, they are gonna be your top priority. And if, like me, you do not have children, you likely still have family or friends who are more important to you than any job could ever be. And if you are living a well rounded life, you have other passions and interests that fill you up and make you happy.
• 5:10
  Traveling comes to mind for a lot of women law firm owners that I know. You guys love your international travel. For others, it may be investing time and energy in creating a beautiful, happy home. Whatever it is for you, we know that it is important. And we know that you have to prioritize those things at some points in your life and you wanna be able to prioritize them often.
• 5:32
  You don't wanna miss out on your daughter's cheer camp or taking your son to photography class or whatever it is, right? When you're building a law firm business or any type of business, however, it's hard to stay on track with achieving your business growth goals if every other month you're pulling time and attention away from these goals. So beginning of the year, oh, it's the beginning of the year. And then it's spring break and then it's summer vacation. Then we can't do it because we have to go back to school and then get the kids ready.
• 6:02
  And then we can't do it because of the holidays. Right? It's a problem that in the past has been more uniquely female than male. And for some people, it's still the same because women have typically been responsible for carrying the mental and sometimes the physical load of running the family and household and managing the social calendars for everyone in the family, certainly for busy kids who often have busier schedules than we do. And that's still the case with many families, though we are beginning to see some of those patterns shift as more and more women become the breadwinners of their families.
• 6:39
  Quite frankly, the way men have been able to build such successful careers in the past in traditional law firm business is because they can work all the time, eighty to a hundred hours a week, because their wives handled everything else. In today's world, as more and more women become lawyers and they start their own law firm businesses, that model no longer works. We simply can't do it all and do it well. No one can. And oftentimes parents don't want to give up certain things because they still want to be a fully present parent.
• 7:16
  And so they are torn, particularly women tell me that they are torn between feeling guilty at work because they're not with their kids or their family or feeling guilty when they're with their kids because they're not working. So I'm excited that I've been in a position over the past sixteen years to talk with so many women law firm owners because that was my first law firm business about sixteen years ago who are forging their own unique paths by creating law firm businesses that allow them more flexibility in where, when, and how they work. If there was anything good that came out of the pandemic at all, it is that it allowed us as a society to see that we could work in different ways outside of the typical eight to five corporate structure. Also, the boon in technological advances, even in the last five years has completely transformed the way we work today. These days, we think nothing of jumping on a conference call from wherever we are, right from our phone and we could see everybody.
• 8:14
  I remember when only the wealthiest, most state of the art law firms could afford that kind of setup. And it didn't include video if people gathered in conference rooms at one office and they conference in people gathered in a conference room in another office in another city. But I digress. This podcast episode is for those of you who have big financial and long term growth goals, but also don't wanna give up your free time and your flexible lifestyle and those other priorities. And you're probably asking yourself, how can I make millions of dollars in my law firm business so I never have to worry about money again if I don't want to work in my office a hundred hours a week?
• 8:55
  Is that even possible? Do I have to sacrifice one for the other? And I'm here to tell you that it is possible. There is just one catch because you know there's always a catch, right? While you are out and away from your law firm business multiple times a year, whether you're out for family needs or vacations or self care, or because of an illness or someone in your family needing you, whatever your reason, someone needs to be back at the office.
• 9:22
  Whether you have a remote office or an office building, someone needs to be there keeping the home fires burning in your law firm business, getting the work done that needs to be done to grow the law firm business in your absence. And that doesn't happen if you are a true solo or even a solo with a few admin staff helping you. If you are a solo and you are out sick for weeks, everything grinds to a halt. If you're a solo and you have some staff members and you go on vacation, you still are the main person who is the answer woman for those people. There are certain things that they will not be able to do without you.
• 10:04
  So you constantly have to be on even when you are out. That can only happen if you cultivate the right team and create a law firm business that can be operated systematically without you being present. If you must be present to sign up new clients, to sign the checks, to do the legal work, to do the billing, to meet with clients, to make it rain, to deal with employee issues, and everything else that comes with running a successful business, then you will never be able to achieve the full freedom that you desire. And that includes working from your favorite vacation spot, by the way. Working from anywhere at any time has the downside of keeping you chained to work.
• 10:45
  Because even if you're not taking your laptop down to the beach, you just taking it to your hotel room, you're still getting sucked into thinking about work from all of the employees or clients emailing you, slacking you, texting you, calling you with their issues and decisions that only you can make. You can't completely shut everything off without worry that it's all gonna fall apart without you. If that's your jam and you don't mind working while you're supposed to be on vacation or spending time with your family, then more power to you, truly. There are some people out there that that's what they wanna do. They vision themselves with their laptop, working from exotic locations all over the world.
• 11:25
  And if that's you, then go for it. But if you are like me, when you're gone, you just wanna be gone. You wanna shut off from work for a while and you don't want your business to grind to a halt while you're gone, right? You want things to keep flowing and money to come in and clients to be serviced and all the things that need to happen to happen. Did you need a different plan?
• 11:48
  So here are three strategies that will help you create a law firm business that continues to thrive even when you are out of the office for an extended period of time. Okay, so write these down if you're where you can. If you're driving or you're out walking or something, then obviously you can't, but come back to it later. Strategy number one is hire other lawyers. This seems to be the area where most women law firm owners struggle.
• 12:15
  It is not uncommon for women law firm owners to work for years, even decades without ever hiring other lawyers because they don't know how, or they're fearful about it or worried about how they're gonna pay them. So yes, you need a good admin staff and paralegals, but only other lawyers can truly provide the freedom you seek because they are the only ones who can cover for you in your absence when a lawyer is needed. If you are a true solo, my advice to you is to hire at least one other experienced lawyer who can handle things while you're gone because quite frankly, you probably don't have much time or energy at this stage to train a brand new baby lawyer at this point in your law firm business. Strategy number two is invest in becoming a better leader and in cultivating leaders in your law firm business. One of the biggest challenges I see women law firm owners face as they scale is that they've never led a law firm business before or maybe even any business.
• 13:11
  Some maybe have, but most haven't. They've never acquired the leadership skills that they need to grow their own law firm business. There's nothing inherently wrong with that. You didn't know how to be a lawyer until you invested the money, the time, and the energy into learning how to be one. It's the same thing with being a law firm leader or manager.
• 13:30
  It requires investment. The return on that investment will be the ultimate freedom with all the time, money, and flexibility you desire, because you will become a leader who can cultivate other leaders in your business. So the full burden of the day to day operations is not on you all day, every day. Leaders can come in many shapes and forms, including senior attorneys or senior paralegals, law firm administrators, office managers, managing attorneys, social media managers, and so on and so forth. What you are looking for here are people with critical thinking skills who are willing to step up without you asking.
• 14:11
  So you're looking for people who won't just are sitting there waiting for you to tell them what to do, but who have initiative and will take initiative to step up and they can identify when help is needed and offer that help. All right. Strategy number three, ask who, not how. As Dan Sullivan says in his book, Who, Not How, we need to stop asking how do I do x and start asking who already knows how to do what I need done so that I can hire them to help me. Asking how do I do X is both the blessing and the curse of high achieving women.
• 14:50
  While it has gotten us far in life and led us to get through college, law school, the bar exam, and learning how to be great attorneys, this question will not get you to the next level of your law firm business as quickly as you would like it to. Instead, start asking who already knows the answers and hire them to help you. This is a shortcut I wish I had learned decades ago because it would have saved me so much time and money and headache, and would have completely transformed my life a lot sooner. Like many lawyers, I'm a lifetime learner. I also feel like if I have enough time, I can figure out just about anything except maybe quantum physics or or anything to do with the space, living in space.
• 15:33
  That has worked to my detriment. And many times, because every time I choose to learn a whole new profession just to understand how to do one little thing I need it done, I've wasted something way more valuable than even money, and that is my time. If that sounds like you, my advice is just to stop. Next time you're faced with a challenge in your business in an area that you are not an expert. So let's use Google Ads as an example.
• 15:58
  You're not an expert in Google Ads. You're not Google certified. Stopping and spending your time trying to become Google certified. Hire somebody to help you with Google Ads. That's just one example of many, many, many.
• 16:08
  Ask yourself, who already has the knowledge that I need that I can hire to do this for me? For the past decade, I have worked with hundreds of business owners. And I can tell you many of the women law firm owners I've coached have had to deal with some very disruptive life events while they were growing their law firm businesses. Events like multiple hurricanes in one season that damaged their homes, critical illnesses, either their own or someone else that they love dealing with a critical illness, divorce, breakups, new relationships, marriages, you name it. All kinds of big life events have happened to my clients as I have worked with them over the years.
• 16:48
  And then, of course, there are the countless holidays, birthdays, and lengthy international vacation. There's always going to be something that is out there to disrupt you. Something that you can say, the reason I'm not growing my business is because of X. Yet despite all these life challenges and these changes, many of my clients were able to grow profitable, sustainable law firm businesses at the same time that life events were taking their attention away. And what makes them different are, I've identified three elements that make them different.
• 17:24
  One is that they just wanted their goals that bad. They wanted it badly enough. For people who have not been as successful, it is because it wasn't really the thing that they really wanted. They thought it was what they wanted, but it wasn't really what they wanted. The ones who have been able to persevere even when there are challenges in life are people who just wanted it more than others.
• 17:47
  Number two, they were willing to put mechanisms in place to make it happen. So they were willing to take those risks to hire people, to set up systems, to ask for help, to ask who, not how. All of those going out on the ledge and saying, I'm going to ask for help. I'm going to be open to help. And I'm gonna be open to new ideas instead of having a fixed mindset.
• 18:13
  And number three, they chose not to make decisions from a place of panic or fear or lack, but instead from a place of desire, abundance, resilience, optimism, that everything is always working out for their best interest. Right? If you have big audacious goals and you wanna transform from being a solo lawyer to owning and operating a profitable, sustainable wealth generating law firm business, but maybe you aren't sure the exact steps you need to take and the order in which you need to take them, or maybe you would just love a little more support from someone who's been there and done that and helped numerous others do the same, then I invite you to schedule an appointment with me to chat about how we, as a Wealthy Woman Lawyer, may be able to support and guide you. If you enjoyed today's topic, please take a few minutes to leave us a review on Apple Podcast. Every five star review tells Apple that this podcast is one that other people like to hear as well.
• 19:11
  And I so appreciate each and every one of you who have left me a wonderful review. Thanks so much for listening to the Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast. And I'll be back again next week with more content created just for women law firm owners like you. So I'll see you then.
• 19:27
  Intro: If you're ready to create more of what you truly desire in your business and your life, then you'll want to visit us at wealthywomanlawyer dot com to learn more about how we help our clients create wealth generating law firms with ease.